General News Thread

[CosbehFox]

1 minute ago, Foxdiamond said:

Are they doing it 24 hours a day seven days a week. You could accuse people spending time on going to football etc as a waste of good time that could be spent elsewhere 

What’s the validation for putting up the flags? That’s the difference. 

 

16 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

Ain’t gonna happen though is it. The average person would prefer to do something trendy than beneficial. (Although on a personal note I do like seeing more Union flags and St George’s cross’).

 

I knowwww I was being silly 

Which strikes at the root of the UK’s problems, if we park politics to aside. We have a general public which bemoan the lack of community and values but rather than support what community assets we have, the public jump on a bandwagon. 

[CWC1983]

4 minutes ago, Vacamion said:

 

You wouldn't have expected it, but there are a few bits of Glasgow with Saltires having gone up on lamp posts, seemingly imitating what's going on down there. 

 

Given what goes on with other "flegs" and marches every Summer, you would think Scotland would be a bit wary of that kind of thing.

 

Really disappointed to see people from my home town outside a hotel protesting a few weeks ago (Aberdeenshire) , and numerous people with flags draped over them.  

 

As you say, the Scottish, Irish thing up North brings a whole new level of complexity to the situation. 

[Muzzy_no7]

3 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

What’s the validation for putting up the flags? That’s the difference. 

 

Which strikes at the root of the UK’s problems, if we park politics to aside. We have a general public which bemoan the lack of community and values but rather than support what community assets we have, the public jump on a bandwagon. 

I agree and certainly works both ways.

 

 

[Foxdiamond]

1 minute ago, CosbehFox said:

What’s the validation for putting up the flags? That’s the difference. 

 

Which strikes at the root of the UK’s problems, if we park politics to aside. We have a general public which bemoan the lack of community and values but rather than support what community assets we have, the public jump on a bandwagon. 

I personally have no desire to raise flags. It occurred to me that perhaps it is a reaction to accusations in certain quarters that everything English or British is something to ashamed of

[Tommy Fresh]

11 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

Are they doing it 24 hours a day seven days a week. You could accuse people spending time on going to football etc as a waste of good time that could be spent elsewhere 

I don't think they are particularly comparable but sure

[Tommy Fresh]

4 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

I personally have no desire to raise flags. It occurred to me that perhaps it is a reaction to accusations in certain quarters that everything English or British is something to ashamed of

They're proud of the flag, but not so proud or ignorant of the history and why that history may lead to asylum seekers coming here

Edited 2 September 2025 by Tommy Fresh

[CosbehFox]

6 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

I personally have no desire to raise flags. It occurred to me that perhaps it is a reaction to accusations in certain quarters that everything English or British is something to ashamed of

So hence my original point if they wish to celebrate England and the UK celebrate the parts of your community which have an actual, outright legacy rather than sticking flags up. 
 

We know that people aren’t using their time in these areas because such facilities and services are closing. I’m very fortunate to live in a village where all a lot of stuff happens because people dictate their time to their community and in return the whole village micro economy is boosted. However theyve just had to close a lunch service for OAPs cos no one was willing to come forward to be chef even though the group was willing to put them through hygiene training. 
 

Going the football isn’t comparable because there’s a personal motivation to that the justification for raising the flags is that it’s celebrating the UK and its values. It’s virtue signalling 

Edited 2 September 2025 by CosbehFox

[Sly]

Just now, CWC1983 said:

I'm going to take the 5th.......

 

I'd potentially get a ban otherwise 😀. 

 

I can understand why its happening, I just don't agree with it.

As someone else said,  it makes me feel uneasy. 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I’ve done some more (further) internet based research and found out the underlining tones to it all now.

 

I’ve not really kept up with all the protesting about boats, hotels, immigration etc, as I basically see the entire British population as being largely multicultural.

 

Whichever way it gets sliced, the British Isles has always had a high population of immigration, be that 0 BC to modern day, we’ve had Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes,  Frisians, Vikings (Danish, Swedes and Norwegians), Normans, JewisH, Flemish, Italians, Hanseatic, Africans, Huguenots, Dutch, Irish, Caribbean, Asian, Chinese, Eastern European, Cypriot, Ugandans, Somalians, Vietnamese, Balkans ….. each group will have been persecuted at the time, as they were different and perceived not to belong. 
 

The British caused half the bloody problems by taking over half the globe.

 

What makes Britain, well Britain though ……

 

 

“Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign.”

 

We are as a nation multicultural and have largely peacefully co-existed like this. 

 

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, Sly said:

Yes, I’ve done some more (further) internet based research and found out the underlining tones to it all now.

 

I’ve not really kept up with all the protesting about boats, hotels, immigration etc, as I basically see the entire British population as being largely multicultural.

 

Whichever way it gets sliced, the British Isles has always had a high population of immigration, be that 0 BC to modern day, we’ve had Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes,  Frisians, Vikings (Danish, Swedes and Norwegians), Normans, JewisH, Flemish, Italians, Hanseatic, Africans, Huguenots, Dutch, Irish, Caribbean, Asian, Chinese, Eastern European, Cypriot, Ugandans, Somalians, Vietnamese, Balkans ….. each group will have been persecuted at the time, as they were different and perceived not to belong. 
 

The British caused half the bloody problems by taking over half the globe.

 

What makes Britain, well Britain though ……

 

 

“Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign.”

 

We are as a nation multicultural and have largely peacefully co-existed like this. 

 

As true as this is, there is a significant proportion of the population that, for their own reasons or through digital media, believe that "British = White Speaking English Only Forever", and are seemingly willing to make their point about it in strong terms at the present time, to the point of violent enforcement.

 

The only question now is will they convince enough people to make their viewpoint a matter of political policy. Like I said, a crossroads.

[bovril]

1 minute ago, Sly said:

Yes, I’ve done some more (further) internet based research and found out the underlining tones to it all now.

 

I’ve not really kept up with all the protesting about boats, hotels, immigration etc, as I basically see the entire British population as being largely multicultural.

 

Whichever way it gets sliced, the British Isles has always had a high population of immigration, be that 0 BC to modern day, we’ve had Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes,  Frisians, Vikings (Danish, Swedes and Norwegians), Normans, JewisH, Flemish, Italians, Hanseatic, Africans, Huguenots, Dutch, Irish, Caribbean, Asian, Chinese, Eastern European, Cypriot, Ugandans, Somalians, Vietnamese, Balkans ….. each group will have been persecuted at the time, as they were different and perceived not to belong. 
 

The British caused half the bloody problems by taking over half the globe.

 

What makes Britain, well Britain though ……

 

 

“Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign.”

 

We are as a nation multicultural and have largely peacefully co-existed like this. 

 

England has historically had very low levels of immigration and been very mono ethnic and mono cultural compared to most European countries. That's why the increase in immigration in the last couple of decades freaked people out so much. 

 

The UK state is obviously multi ethnic but the differences between the nations is arguably quite small, arguably smaller than say between north and south Italy. 

[bovril]

We need to dissolve the union for the sake of the English 

[CWC1983]

2 minutes ago, bovril said:

We need to dissolve the union for the sake of the English 

Deal. 

In the divorce we'll keep the natural resources, and you can get the Royals 😀.  I'll even throw Rangers and Celtic in to sweeten the deal. 

  

[bovril]

11 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

As true as this is, there is a significant proportion of the population that, for their own reasons or through digital media, believe that "British = White Speaking English Only Forever", and are seemingly willing to make their point about it in strong terms at the present time, to the point of violent enforcement.

 

The only question now is will they convince enough people to make their viewpoint a matter of political policy. Like I said, a crossroads.

One of the biggest fissures in European in the near future I think will be between those who see the nation along ethnic lines and those who see it as a proposition like in the USA. That split will be more pronounced in the UK than other European countries because it its current form is something of a relic of the pre WW1 era and because we're so influenced by America.

Edited 2 September 2025 by bovril

[bovril]

2 minutes ago, CWC1983 said:

Deal. 

In the divorce we'll keep the natural resources, and you can get the Royals 😀.  I'll even throw Rangers and Celtic in to sweeten the deal. 

  

I wonder sometimes whether a British national team would have affected levels of British identity in the non Anglo nations. I sometimes felt in Italy it had that effect, though not in Spain so much.

[Foxdiamond]

4 minutes ago, bovril said:

I wonder sometimes whether a British national team would have affected levels of British identity in the non Anglo nations. I sometimes felt in Italy it had that effect, though not in Spain so much.

Perhaps Team GB in the Olympics gives a flavour. Mind in the Scottish press in the 60s and 70s there was backlash against players that played for English clubs and if they should be selected for the Scotland team. 

[leicsmac]

11 minutes ago, bovril said:

One of the biggest fissures in European in the near future I think will be between those who see the nation along ethnic lines and those who see it as a proposition like in the USA. That split will be more pronounced in the UK than other European countries because it its current form is something of a relic of the pre WW1 era and because we're so influenced by America.

There's something in that.

 

That being said, my own views on the incompatibility of human division along either nation state or ethnic lines with the tech advances being made and the natural challenges that are coming to us rapidly are very well stated on here, and every single day I see increasing amounts of evidence to confirm them and where they inevitably lead. 

[tinpot_fox]

22 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

As true as this is, there is a significant proportion of the population that, for their own reasons or through digital media, believe that "British = White Speaking English Only Forever", and are seemingly willing to make their point about it in strong terms at the present time, to the point of violent enforcement.

 

The only question now is will they convince enough people to make their viewpoint a matter of political policy. Like I said, a crossroads.

 

Kemi is too busy lying about being offered a place at Stanford University to be worried about the other chap stealing the divisive polices playbook and walking into Downing Street. the only question is what will the NigelCoin look like and when will the bubble burst.

 

21 minutes ago, bovril said:

England has historically had very low levels of immigration and been very mono ethnic and mono cultural compared to most European countries. That's why the increase in immigration in the last couple of decades freaked people out so much. 

 

The UK state is obviously multi ethnic but the differences between the nations is arguably quite small, arguably smaller than say between north and south Italy. 

I'm pretty sure the UK as whole has had large swathes of immigration, they've just been subsumed into the folk that live here, just look at the origin of all the different place names for instance. There's multi ethnicity in the populace now from so long ago that DNA is the only way it's really able to tell.

[Wymsey]

What should the main faith of Britain/England be?

 

Should there be a 'religion for everyone', to potentially accept each other's cultural differences?

Edited 2 September 2025 by Wymsey

[Vacamion]

 

I always thought that supranational corporate bodies, megamoney and global trade would make the Nation State less important. 

 

Brands would be bigger than most countries. 

 

Large trading blocs would make flags and anthems and border crossings less important.

 

But with the retrenchments of the last 15 years, and especially since 2016, I see that it was all a dream and I didn't know my Fukayama from my elbow.

 

 

[urban.spaceman]

Made a handy table for anyone who needed held deciding who is the worst Prime Minister:

 

	Cameron	May	Johnson	Truss	Sunak	Starmer
Austerity	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Killed the Queen	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌
Crashed the economy	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌
Caused a recession	❌	❌	✅	❌	✅ ✅	❌
Brexit (called, supported, delivered, mismanaged)	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
COVID mismanagement leading to 250,000 deaths	❌	❌	✅	❌	✅	❌
Broke COVID rules	❌	❌	✅	❌	✅	❌
Prorogued parliament illegally	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
NHS crisis (underfunding, staff shortages)	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Housing crisis (low build, rising rents)	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Sewage in rivers / deregulation	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Cost of living crisis	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	❌
Corrupt	✅	❌	✅	❌	✅	❌
Is insane	❓	❌	✅	✅	❓	❌
Accepted free suits and glasses	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅

[Vacamion]

Just now, Wymsey said:

What should the main faith of Britain/England be?

 

People who care about this stuff, and let it influence politics in any way whatsoever, scare me.

 

Conflating "Britain" and "England" in matters of religion is asking for trouble.  17th Century style.  

 

Luckily, in Scotland it's now deffo atheism.

 

 

[bovril]

5 minutes ago, tinpot_fox said:

 

Kemi is too busy lying about being offered a place at Stanford University to be worried about the other chap stealing the divisive polices playbook and walking into Downing Street. the only question is what will the NigelCoin look like and when will the bubble burst.

 

I'm pretty sure the UK as whole has had large swathes of immigration, they've just been subsumed into the folk that live here, just look at the origin of all the different place names for instance. There's multi ethnicity in the populace now from so long ago that DNA is the only way it's really able to tell.

We're talking hundreds sometimes thousands of years ago and that mixed genetic make up is no more significant than most comparable countries. The population of England from the middle ages til around the turn of the millennium was remarkably settled compared to most of Europe. We're not a melting pot, far from it 

[bovril]

10 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

What should the main faith of Britain/England be?

For England Catholicism obviously. Hopefully they'll have us back. The Scots are a lost cause 

[CWC1983]

6 minutes ago, bovril said:

I wonder sometimes whether a British national team would have affected levels of British identity in the non Anglo nations. I sometimes felt in Italy it had that effect, though not in Spain so much.

It's weird, depending on the sport. I get behind the GB Olympic team, British and Irish Lions, Ryder Cup team. I'd never get behind a UK football team. 

 

I actually like how as 4 different nations we all have our idiosyncrasies but fundamentally are very similar. 

 

I do think the next General election will create some serious divides within each of the 4 countries. 

[bovril]

4 minutes ago, CWC1983 said:

 

I do think the next General election will create some serious divides within each of the 4 countries. 

Understatement of the year